GEq Original

Everyone has heard about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, it has been all over the news since it began more than a month ago. Starting on April 20, oil has been leaking constantly into the ocean at a rate of between 12,000 and 19,000 barrels daily, making it easily the largest oil spill in history.

Though most of the oil remains underwater there are hundreds of miles of coastline threatened by the surface oil slick. If you are like me and have trouble picturing quite how big this oil spill is, or if you have any question of how truly massive it is, I suggest checking this Google Earth tool that allows you to compare the spill to your hometown.

These are pictures of my hometown in Palm Beach County and my current home in New York, or as close as I could get. As it turns out the oil spill is so large it would cover most of South Florida as well as much of the Tri-State area.

This isn’t even the entire oil slick, if you can believe it some is still off-screen.

Can you imagine if the oil spill was happening off the coast of Long Island?

With the well still not shut off, oil continues to spew into the ocean. Even if the flow is stopped soon the oil in the water will plague the region for some time to come; the area hurt by the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill has still not recovered completely. If you are interested in helping, this article from CNN gives an updated list of the organizations recruiting volunteers. These pictures really make you appreciate the extent of this problem so if you are in the region I am sure the clean up efforts could use your help.

Welcome to Green Equations’ Blog. We will be using this section of the website to provide our opinions and perspectives on the all things ‘sustainability.’

To start, let me introduce who we are:

Green Equations is a nonprofit organization created by myself, Wesley Cronk, and my good friend and colleague Ramsay Stevens. We came together over the common belief that sustainable development is a necessary consideration in our rapidly changing world. Our organization is dedicated to the ‘democratization of sustainability’ —- we believe that anyone wishing to make positive changes should have the ability to do so.

One way that we hope to accomplish our goal is through this blog. Today, sustainability-related information is not in regular circulation. Mainstream media often ignores developments and innovations in the field, either because it doesn’t make for good headlines or the content is too technical to convey. Our blog is intended to combat this present bias by providing interesting and relatable stories in a context that makes sense for everyone.

The second way we are forwarding our goals is through our specialized projects. The Green Gains Program is our paramount project. Green Gains provides residential, co-operative, and commercial buildings with no-cost financing solutions to begin energy efficiency upgrades. We view this project as the embodiment of our ideals —- we provide participants the ability to live and work more sustainably regardless of socioeconomic status. To read more about the benefits of this project, feel free to visit our the Projects page on our website. Along with the Green Gains Program, Green Equations offers nonprofit sustainability consulting on a variety of other types of projects with the intention of providing information while saving people money.

I encourage all readers to check out the rest of our site. In other sections of our blog we update readers on interesting news and stories that we are reading, covering topics like energy efficiency, climate change, renewable energy, and green building. Check back for our latest posts or sign up to follow us via RSS.

This space is dedicated to the ideas, news and comments that Green Equations staff, volunteers and colleagues want to share with the community. Stay tuned for updates.